Although there was much more to Mr Blair’s emotional campaign for
the Labour Party in Scotland - and for Union - the four crisp points he
made against the Scottish National Part (SNP) were the focus of media
attention last week. The chart shows how the Scottish papers aired the
counter-arguments made by the SNP, while London largely ignored
them.
Despite the platform, the the SNP’s chief executive still failed to give
a telling reply to the accusation that his party stood for
separation.
Both the Herald and the Scotsman welcomed a more reasoned debate, even
though accusations about the SNP’s future rejection of English-born
Scots were highly charged.
Meanwhile, Labour’s rejection of Dennis Canavan as a candidate,
accusations of Stalinism and local manoeuvres about London’s mayor and
the Welsh assembly provided a backdrop to editorials. These savoured the
paradox that Tony Blair is a great decentraliser who is uncomfortable
with devolution, but who was successfully carrying the war to the
enemy.
Evaluation and analysis by
CARMA International. Cuttings supplied by the Broadcast Monitoring
Company.
’What The Papers Say’ can be found at: www.carma.com
